Consequences
by Esteria Silversmith
Summary: In a universe where soulmates share eachother's wounds, Ed and Al's mistake has much farther reaching consequences than they ever intended. OR, the fic where Mei is a ghost, Roy loses some limbs and every horrifying even effects twice as many people as it did in cannon, but somehow it all ends up ok. Eventually.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi, there! So my friend and I were playing around with soulmate au's the other day, and, well, this happened. It's an altered version of a common soulmate au, where, whenever you get hurt, your soulmate** **receives** **that wound the next day. Warning for Angst with a capital A. Also, this fic will contain many different pairings, including bobyxboy, girlxboy, and girlxgirl. If you aren't comfortable with that, don't read it. Thanks!**

 **~Esteria**

 **P.S. I've read the manga and seen Brotherhood, but I heard Ling wasn't in the other Fullmetal Alchemist anime, so I decided not to watch it. As such, this will not contain elements of that** **story line**

 **I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. If I did, GreedLing would have more** **screen time** **, and his minions from the Devils Nest would come back.**

Ever since her boys had been born, Trisha had been excited for the day they would get their first soulmate mark. As someone who's marks had never appeared, due to Hohenheim's healing factor, she knew the pain and emptiness that came from feeling left out and thinking that you were forever alone. She never wanted Ed or Al to experience that. Still, seeing her five year old son standing in front of her, gripping what was obviously a bullet graze and promising that he "didn't do it it, I swear, it just appeared" was a bit much.

Could her son's soulmate really be a soldier? She knew that there was a war going on in Ishval, but Ed was only five, how could his soulmate be old enough to fight. Maybe they were an Ishvalan child who got too close to the fighting? Well, whatever was happening, if her son was receiving wounds this bad, that meant his soulmate was in danger. Which meant that _Ed_ was in danger. And she couldn't do a thing about it.

Still, she wouldn't resign herself to being helpless. And so, Trisha called over the Rockabells to give her son better medical attention than she herself could, and told them what had happened, asking that they accept the offer they had recently received to travel to Ishval and work as emergency medical aid. And that night, as she tucked Ed and Al into bed she told them about soulmates.

She told them how soulmates were people who were meant to be together, either romantically or platonically, and that everyone had one. She told them about how, when someone is injured, their other half receives that same injury the next day. She told them that Ed's wound was from his soulmate, and that someday, Al would find a soulmate wound too. She told them everything. Everything, that is, except her suspicions of Ed's soulmate being in IShval.

Instead, Trisha sat out side Ed's door every night, just in case his soulmate was badly hurt again. She worked with Pinako to treat the various scrapes and holes and many, many burns that appeared on her little boy's body, and she promised that she would tell him when he was older. Over time, the war ended,and Ed's soulmate marks began to limit themselves to scrapes, and bruises, though the occasional small burn still appeared. Al began to receive soulmate marks, just small ones, nothing as drastic as Ed's, and Trisha's thoughts on Ed's soulmate completely slipped her mind. Then, she grew ill.

Her boys tried everything they could to reach their father, or a medical alchemist or _anyone_ who could help, but Risembool was a small town, and there hadn't been a decent doctor there since the Rockabells had left. Trisha thought it was poetic justice, after all, she was the one who had convinced them to go to their deaths, and now she was dying because they weren't there to cure her. And so, Trisha passed on, her soulmate not even knowing of her ailment, because he healed to fast to hear her pain. A few years later, her sons tried to bring her back.

The Truth, while cruel, is nonetheless a fair being. He does not give more than the toll is worth, and he does not take more than the knowledge is worth. However, even One, All, World, You, Truth ect. Cannot stop the bond between soulmates. As such, the moment the Elric brothers were drawn into portal to witness the truth and have what remained of their childhoods ripped out from beneath their feet, they also sealed the fates of two other individuals.

That night, a military man came to the Rockabells to meet the Elric brothers and ask them to join the Amestrian military. As he and his companion, a blonde woman with a large, x shaped scar across her forehead, left, the Elrics began to plot. Pinako and Winry looked on with a mixture of horror and pity as two young boys, broken, but still strong, made a pact that they would get their bodies back, regardless of what occurred along the way, be it soulmates or soldiers. From then on it was them against the world.

…

The next day, at the exact moment that the Elric brothers had been taken to see the Truth, Lieutenant Colonel Roy Mustang began to scream out in agonizing pain as two of his limbs seemed to rip themselves off of his body and disappear from existence. At the same time, but a desert away, the Elders of the Chang clan of Xing looked on helplessly as their princess seemed to disintegrate before their eyes.

When the pain and suffering that were the final consequences of the Elrics' mistake were over, all the was left was a crippled man lying on his floor, trying to work up enough strength to inch his way over to the phone, and a young girl, who looked fairly healthy, though a tad more transparent than she ought to, hovered in the corner of a room wondering why no one could see her.


	2. Chapter 2

**New chapter, woohoo! I was originally planning to make this twice as long, but I decided that the next part fit better as it's own chapter. As such, this chapter is basically just one long fluffy friendship scene with Maes and Roy. But that's ok, because they are the best friend duo in the universe and no one will convince me otherwise. Thanks for reading!**

 **~Esteria**

 **I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist**

A month after his visit to the Elrics, Roy Mustang sat on the bed of Dr. Knox's guest room, thinking back on his life, and trying not to panic. The latter part was proving to be very, very difficult. It wasn't just that he had lost an arm and a leg, he was a soldier, he hadn't even expected to live through Ishval, much less spend his whole life with all four limbs. No, the reason Roy was freaking out was that Edward Elric was his fucking soulmate.

Riza would have told him to calm down, and get a hang of himself. She would have said that a month was long enough for him to grow accustomed to the fact, and that he needed to get his head back in the game. Riza wasn't here, though. Roy had taken an extended leave from work, citing a family emergency, but his Lieutenant would never have been able to get that same time off without it looking incredibly suspicious.

They couldn't let the military know about his soulmate. While it's true that not all soulmates are romantic, and Roy knows that he was in no way attracted to the mutilated twelve year old he had met in Risembool, the rumors and unsavory suspicions that would result from Roy having such a young soulmate would all but put a stop to his ambition. Not to mention the fact that, if the news got out the military would never place the Elrics under his command, and Mustang didn't trust that the boys would be placed with someone who would be able or willing to watch out for them.

The flame alchemist was broken from his musings by the bedroom door being thrown open. Standing there, disheveled and wild eyed was Roy's best friend, MAes Hughes. Directly behind him stood Dr. Knox, looking incredibly annoyed. THat seemed to be his resting expression, though, so Mustang wasn't overly concerned about that.

"Roy!" Hughes shouted, his voice a strange mix of desperate and relieved "Thank god I've finally found you. What were you thinking disappearing like that?"

"Disappearing?" Mustang replied "I went through all of the official channels to get time off."

"Yeah, for a _family emergency_." Maes " I saw Madam Christmas last week, and she doesn't know where you are either." Mustang had the decency to look abashed. "C'mon Roy, What's going on here?" Roy fidgeted. He had never been one to be embarrassed, and with how close he and Maes were, there wasn't a whole lot that the other man didn't know about him, but still this was a _big deal_. And it was a personal matter. Roy had never been able to deal with those. The room was permeated with a tense silence for a few moments, as Mustang gathered the courage to speak.

"Around a month ago, I traveled East to visit a couple of promising alchemists, the Elric brothers." Maes listened in rapt attention. "It turns out our records had somethings wrong about them, though. When I reached their home, I did not find two grown men with a talent for alchemy. Instead, I found two prodigies, one twelve and the other a year younger. They had attempted human transmutation."

"Shit" Hughes breathed. "Were they alive." Roy nodded.

"The older boy had lost two limbs, and nothing was left of the younger but a soul stuck to a suit of armour, but they were alive. I told them that becoming State Alchemists might give them access to information that could help them return to their original bodies." Maes took a couple of deep breaths.

"Ok," he said "This is bad. Horrible things happened to those kids, and I don't entirely agree with how you handled it. This isn't bad enough to cause you to hide though. If anything, this should motivate you to work even harder at your plans for Furhership. What else happened." Roy was silent for a long moment, looking away off into the distance, as if he hadn't heard the question. After a few moments, he began to speak again, sounding detached and confused.  
"Hey Maes, do you remember back when we were teenagers? And how you used to tease me about my soulmate marks, joking about how I must be a peadophile, because only kids got _that many_ scraped knees." Maes nodding, unsure where things line was going, and Mustang let out a humourless laugh.

"Well," he said, pulling off his glove "It seems that you weren't entirely wrong." Hughes didn't reply, too busy staring at the shiny metal sitting where Roy's hand should be, connecting the obviously new automail with the story he had just heard about the Elrics. Pushing away a panic attack to deal with later, he leaned forwards and, being careful not to bump anywhere painful, wrapped his best friend in the largest, warmest, most comforting hug he knew how to give.

"It's Ok, he whispered, we'll figure this out."


	3. chapter 3

A desert away from where Maes Hughes was comforting his friend, a young boy was sitting on the highest boughs of a tree. His name was Ling Yao, and he hd absolutely, positively, one hundred percent not stolen all of the bread in the kitchen. Or the rice. Or the chicken. If, perchance, these things had happened to disappear while he was near the kitchen, it had obviously been a complete coincidence, and the cook really should be looking for the true culprit, rather than hunting him down. Yes, Ling decided, munching on a piece of bread that had appeared, seemingly from nowhere, he was definitely not the person behind the Case of the Missing Food Items.

Despite his complete and total innocence, Ling's snack was interrupted by the appearance of his guard, Fu.

"Young Lord, what are you doing up here?"

Ling quickly his the food.

"Nothing! I am doing nothing at all!" Fu gave a long-suffering sigh.

"Young Lord, if you remain in this tree for much longer, you will be late for the diplomatic meeting your parents are having with the Chang clan." So saying, the old ninja began to descend from the tree. Ling pouted and shoved the remaining bread in his mouth, before following.

It had been a month since the accident which rendered Mei Chang invisible and incorporeal, and she had since come to the conclusion that she had died, and was now doomed to haunt her family for all of eternity. It just made sense. After all, the only things she had ever heard of that sounded like her situation were the ghost stories Old Man Lee told her whenever she would bring Xiao Mei over for a check up.

Speaking of the little panda, she seemed to be the only living thing capable of seeing Mei, and had taken to following her around the house. She wasn't doing so today, though. No, today, the little panda had a much more important job; spying. The Yao clan was visiting on diplomatic business, and Mei Chang might not be alive anymore, but she'd be damned if she was going to let another clan walk into her home without keeping a very careful eye on them. Hence why she was floating in the corner with the best view of the entire dining hall, and Xiao Mei was on the highest wall of the castle, watching for the Yao's arrival.

Mei's introspection was soon cut short by the chattering of her panda companion, who had spotted the oncoming procession. After that, it wasn't long before the Yao's arrived. They were an intimidating family, not one of the wealthiest, but certainly far better off than the Changs. The clan head was a tall man with his long hair pulled up into a bun. He was lithe, rather than outright muscular, but one look at the large sword on his back would keep anyone from doubting his strength. Next to him was his sister, a tall, rather beautiful woman with intelligent eyes and ink stained fingers. Behind her was her son, the Prince and the Yao clan hier. He was a young boy, supposedly only a year older than Mei, but he was rather tall for his age. His hair was pulled up into a pony tail, and his face was split into a wide grin. Overall, he looked rather nice, but not particularly intimidating, and Mei's eyes would have scanned right over him had he not walked right up to her, poked her in the face and said

"Hi, I'm Ling? Why are you see through?"


End file.
